A natural language understanding system for reference resolution in information dialogues

The benefits of a Natural Language Understanding (NLU) system for information seeking can only be realised if the system allows for effective communication. The system should be able to deal with the interpretation of referring expressions in dialogue, such as anaphors and ellipsis. In this paper, the components which comprise a NLU system to deal with continuous dialogue are described. Given that the syntactic and semantic information can produce a suitable representation of each utterance, pragmatic information may be used to determine how this contextual information determines the interpretation of subsequent utterances. It is suggested that the approach taken allows the system to provide a cooperative response to assist the user in attaining the information seeking goal

User interactions with results summaries (position paper)

This position paper on web information seeking and interaction draws on information seeking models to broadly describe the searcher's interactions and the functionality of the retrieved results page as supporting a process of concept forming. Viewing search as developing an information need enhances the supporting function of the presentation of the search results, beyond the more traditional function of relevance spotting. User guides to investigate the effectiveness of novel interfaces supporting search are essential, but there is a need for basic research into the nature of search and its relation, specifically, with results presentation

A classification of ellipsis based on a corpus of information seeking dialogues

The standard classification of ellipsis has determined the way it is handled in natural language understanding (NLU) systems. This work provides a novel classification of ellipsis based on the analysis of ellipsis usage rather than forms in a corpus of information seeking dialogues. The aim is to demonstrate that pragmatic analysis is necessary for the interpretation of ellipsis. The context, in terms of the dialogue participants' belief states, determines interpretation and in turn the interpretation of subsequent utterances. The dialogues produced in a NLU system using this classification are presented

Evaluation: a perspective on automatic abstracting research

Evaluation is an important research agenda item in the advancement of new systems and it is shown that this area of research stands to benefit from the developments in evaluation metrics which are set to take place

Optimal results presentation for dynamic search (position paper)

Adaptive information retrieval may use feedback to capture the context of the user's task and aspects of relevance that are hard to express in a query. However many users may find it difficult to express even the topic of interest in an initial query. The cognitive view of search is of a dynamic, problem solving activity with the user modifying the information interest as new information is retrieved

Generating indicative-informative summaries with SumUM

We present and evaluate SumUM, a text summarization system that takes a raw technical text as input and produces an indicative informative summary. The indicative part of the summary identifies the topics of the document, and the informative part elaborates on some of these topics according to the reader's interest. SumUM motivates the topics, describes entities, and defines concepts. It is a first step for exploring the issue of dynamic summarization. This is accomplished through a process of shallow syntactic and semantic analysis, concept identification, and text regeneration. Our method was developed through the study of a corpus of abstracts written by professional abstractors. Relying on human judgment, we have evaluated indicativeness, informativeness, and text acceptability of the automatic summaries. The results thus far indicate good performance when compared with other summarization technologies

Awareness, use and opinions of methodological search filters used for the retrieval of evidence-based medical literature

The aim of this study was to determine the level of awareness of methodological search filters among health and academic librarians in the UK and Ireland, their use of filters and views on the perceived benefits, limitations and ways to increase usage of search filters. A random proportional sample of health and academic librarians were surveyed by telephone and fax. Overall, 88% (196/224) completed the telephone survey to establish awareness and use of filters. Eighty-four per cent (51/61) completed a fax survey focusing in more depth on usability issues surrounding filters. Results indicate a high level of awareness of methodological filters, but low level of usage. Furthermore, a high level of awareness did not necessarily correlate with a high level of knowledge or understanding. Examination of responses revealed limitations and recommendations beyond those reported in the literature and highlights the relationship between understanding and effective use of filters. Improved dissemination and publication of filters is required to better inform librarians on the concept of filters and how to use them effectively

Oxytocin Receptor (OXTR) Polymorphisms and Attachment in Human Infants

Ordinary variations in human infants’ attachment behaviors – their proclivity to seek and accept comfort from caregivers – are associated with a wide range of individual differences in psychological functioning in adults. The current investigation examined variation in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene as one possible source of these variations in infant attachment. One hundred seventy-six infants (77 Caucasian, 99 non-Caucasian) were classified as securely or insecurely attached based on their behavior in the Strange Situation (Ainsworth et al., 1978). The A allele of OXTR rs2254298 was associated with attachment security in the non-Caucasian infants (p < 0.005). These findings underscore the importance of oxytocin in the development of human social behavior and support its role in social stress-regulation and the development of trust